This disclosure relates to the field of data processing systems. More particularly, this disclosure relates to the encryption of data within data processing systems.
It is known to protect sensitive data, such as encryption key data, financial data and the like, using encryption mechanisms within data processing systems. An assumption often made within data processing systems in relation to the protection of data is that when that data is erased from a memory, then it will not be recoverable. For example, when power to a volatile memory is removed, the data within that memory is assumed to be erased. However, in practice there may be physical characteristics of the memory that allow erased data to be reconstructed. Data remnance poses a threat to systems that make this assumption, i.e. that data erased from a memory will not be recoverable.
Another potential problem with data encryption mechanisms is that these may consume a disadvantageous amount of energy when encrypting and decrypting data. For example, complex algorithms, such as RSA, can consume many hundreds of thousands of processing cycles to perform their encryption and decryption operations. Within systems with energy budget constraints, such as battery-operated internet-of things devices, the energy consumed by such encryption and decryption mechanisms is a disadvantage.